Better Informed or Stay Naïve? Revisiting Different Types of Selective Exposure and the Impact on Political Learning

ABSTRACT

This study extends the concept of selective exposure by examining different types of selectivity, including topical selectivity (entertainment vs. hard news), information channel selectivity (social media vs. traditional media), and ideological selectivity (like-minded vs. cross-cutting exposure). Drawing on a two-wave panel survey of American netizens (N = 834), this study revisits the debate about the potential of selective exposure to enhance or erode political learning. Results show that both topical and information channel selectivity directly reduce audience’s political knowledge while ideological selectivity does not significantly affect political learning. Topical selectivity reduces political knowledge indirectly through decreased offline political discussion, while ideological selectivity enhances political knowledge gain indirectly through increased offline political discussion. Online political discussion fails to mediate the relationships between all three types of selectivity and political knowledge since it does not have a significant relationship with political knowledge. The findings imply that the prevalence of entertainment media and social media use may even enlarge existing political knowledge gaps. In addition, the political knowledge gained by ideological selective exposure is also dangerous because it could be less comprehensive, unbalanced, and attitudinally biased.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2024.2341031

Notes

¹ Independent sample t-tests were conducted to identify if partisanship (Republican vs. Democrat) made a difference in people’s knowledge on certain issues that may affect their knowledge scores. Knowledge scores did not differ between Republicans and Democrats (W1: t = −1.56, p > .05; W2: t = −1.54, p > .05). Invariance across partisanship was supported.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Direct Grant, Faculty of Social Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong project (no. 4052233).

Notes on contributors

Jing Guo

Jing Guo is a doctoral candidate at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include social media and political communication.

Hsuan-Ting Chen

Hsuan-Ting Chen (PhD, The University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research addresses the uses of digital media technologies and their impact on individuals’ daily lives, political communication processes, and democratic engagement.

Shuning Lu

Shuning Lu (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at North Dakota State University, USA. Her research focuses on media uses and effects, political communication, and social and political implications of digital media technologies.